By Tom Kenworthy, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Announcing new drill-baby-drill legislation today, Chairman Doc Hastings of the House Natural Resources Committee and his GOP colleagues claimed that the failure to develop domestic oil reserves is contributing to the recent sharp increases in gas prices. However, even their hand-picked witnesses at recent show hearings, such as Richard Newell, administrator of the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration, testified to the contrary:

Long term, we do not project additional volumes of oil that could flow from greater access to oil resources on Federal lands to have a large impact on prices given the globally integrated nature of the world oil market.

A new report by the Department of the Interior shows that the oil and gas industry has failed to develop the vast majority of the 34 million acres it has leased from the federal government in the Gulf of Mexico. Those areas are estimated to contain 11.6 billion barrels of oil and 59.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

In addition, the report documents that only about five percent of the nearly 53 million acres offered for lease in 2009 in the central and western Gulf was actually leased by industry. In 2010, the comparable figure was 6.4 percent.

The story is much the same when it comes to oil and gas development on federal onshore lands. The oil and gas industry has failed to explore or develop about 57 percent of the 38 million acres that it has leased from the federal government, according to the DOI report to the president. And the industry has taken a pass on leasing about 43 percent of the acreage offered to them over the last 26 months.

None of these facts seem to be reflected in Chairman Hastings’ three new pieces of legislation:

The trio of bills introduced today would give industry more access to places to drill and would expedite processing of the industry’s permits. The bills do nothing to move along the process on the areas already leased. And they’re not about lowering gas prices; they’re designed to increase oil companies’ profits. Fallow oil leases bulk up oil companies’ proven reserves, a key asset class for their market valuation.

This giveaway doesn’t come as much of a surprise when you look at who supports Chairman Hastings and his Republican colleagues on the Committee. Combined, they have received more than $2.5 million in oil and gas contributions. That money has led to multiple hearings about more drilling and none on expanding renewable energy. According to Politico, Hastings is holding an invitation-only briefing for lobbyists on his legislation.

Chairman Hastings says that his bills will “save American jobs by preventing deliberate government inaction and bureaucratic stalling.” Perhaps he should hold a hearing to ask his friends in the oil and gas industry about their inaction and stalling.

This week, the U.S. Senate is preparing to vote on a series of amendments sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats to cripple the federal response to climate pollution. Although these efforts won’t likely escape the Senate, a majority of these supposed leaders are expected to support the dangerous policy of ignoring the fundamental threat of global warming. As Vice President Gore has noted repeatedly, the “climate crisis, the security crisis and the economic crisis have a common thread” — our dependence on fossil fuels. If we continue the status quo, threats will continue to multiply on every front — a fact our military, if not our politicians now in the Senate, now recognizes.

As A. Siegel has noted at Get Energy Smart, the military brass are working intensely to do their job of defending our nation from the very real threats of dependence on fossil fuels and their world-altering pollution. Furthermore, they’re seizing the economic opportunity the Tea Party Congress has rejected for the nation — rebuilding our forces to be energy smart, with energy efficiency and renewable energy. This week, as Republicans hold hearings and press availabilities to promote Drill Baby Drill legislation and attack climate science, the military is discussing the reality of using energy innovation to address the climate security crisis:

Today at 6 pm, the Clean Energy Network, DC will host a panel discussion on military energy issues. Entitled Clean Energy Priorities of the Military, the panel’s invitation provides this focus: “the trends, challenges, and opportunities surrounding Clean Tech and the Department of Defense.”

Today and tomorrow, Johns Hopkins University’s Advanced Physics Laboratory and the Center for Naval Analyses is, for the second year in a row, running a two-day conference focused on the Department of Navy (U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps) and energy and climate issues: Adapting to Climate and Energy Challenges: Options for U.S. Maritime Forces. This includes the heads of Task Force Energy, Rear Admiral Philip Cullom, and Task Force Climate Change, Rear Admiral Dave Titley.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Association of Climate Change Officers is hosting a two-day conference on Defense, National Security and Climate Change: Mitigating Risks and Seizing Opportunities in a Rapidly Changing Global Environment. Speakers include former senators John Warner and Gary Hart, Senator John Warner, Assistant Secretary of Defense Sharon E. Burke, and Assistant Secretary of the Army Katherine Hammack.

On Thursday, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation is hosting an event where the title explicitly points to the military’s opportunity through focusing on energy challenges: Operation Energy Innovation: A Stronger, Smarter Fighting Force. Speakers include Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) and Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA). Forbes has been a nearly party-line voter for climate denial.

Maybe some of this serious reality will get past the smokescreen of the coal and oil lobby to reach policymakers on Capitol Hill. No matter what, it is heartening to know that there are people who have taken oaths to serve and defend our nation who are actually living up to that pledge.

UPDATE:  Watts has posted two comments below that contain a disingenuous admission of error and several more outrageous falsehoods.  While Watts asserts below, “I was not aware of the issue until Dr. Muller communicated with me,” the truth is that Watts has known for six days that his post was in grave error — but it is only my post here that forced him to concede the mistake.

It was fairly obvious the discredited denier Anthony Watts made a false statement and egregious blunder last week when he attacked the initial findings of Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project.  Of course, that’s true of most posts on WattsUpWithThat, but this fabrication stands out because Watts usually attacks climate science, not the confusionists.

Here’s the hilarious story of Watts’ self-inflicted implosion, what Shakespeare called being hoist with his own petard.

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Tim Pawlenty argued Monday that his past support for cap-and-trade legislation shouldn’t hinder his presidential bid because nearly all the other Republican White House hopefuls also took the same position.

Yes, GOP contenders are now vying to see who can bend over backwards furthest to please the pro-pollution, anti-science Tea Party extremists (See “Gingrich’s 20 years of global warming flip-flops“).  So Pawlenty shrewdly says he should get a pass for flip-flopping because everybody who wants to be President has abandoned science!

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This week, the U.S. Senate will debate and vote on how much to cripple the EPA’s efforts to protect civilization from global warming. The Republicans have attached the Upton-Inhofe bill to deny the existence of global warming pollution as a Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) amendment (S. Amdt. 183) to Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) unrelated small-business bill (S. 493). A Democratic amendment from Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) would exempt the greenhouse pollution of industrial agriculture and other polluters (S. Amdt. 236). An amendment from Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) would prevent the EPA from enforcing rules for two more years (S. Amdt. 215). NRDC’s David Hawkins covers the Clean Air Act phobia well:

It’s a sad state of affairs when members on both sides of the aisle in Congress seem to think it is a good idea to attack the Clean Air Act – the landmark law that Richard Nixon signed and George H. W. Bush strengthened. Yet the hits on the Clean Air Act just keep on coming in this Congress in spite of the Act’s incredible record of cutting deaths and illness caused by air pollution – a record that has earned the strong support of the American people and the admiration of others around the world.

No amendments to force the EPA to take stronger action have been submitted. Rockefeller’s toxic amendment is cosponsored by Sens. Jim Webb (D-VA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Tim Johnson (D-SD), and Kent Conrad (D-ND). McConnell’s climate denial amendment is cosponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Pat Toomey (R-PA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Johnny Isakson (R-GA).

The usual suspects are out en masse pounding the drums to demonize the EPA and at least implicitly deny the existence of global warming:

– The Koch brothers’ Americans For Prosperity attacks “higher energy costs and lost jobs that would result from the EPA distorting the Clean Air Act.”

– Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal: “the EPA plan will appreciably lower the U.S. standard of living.”

– The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity is running radio ads in Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and other states that dis the Clean Air Act as a “40-year-old law.”

– the Competitive Enterprise Institute: “EPA regulations actually impose costs far in excess of benefits.”

– the National Association of Manufacturers is running radio and television ads in Arkansas, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, and Pennsylvania that attack “costly new regulations.”

The target senators are McCaskill, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Carl Levin (D-MI), Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).

Call your Senators and ask them to vote against any legislation that would block the EPA from limiting greenhouse pollution: 202-224-3121

Guardian: “No danger of Chernobyl-style catastrophe”

The radioactive core in a reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant appears to have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor, experts say, raising fears of a major release of radiation at the site.

The UK’s Guardian reports the grim news in its breaking story whose blunt headline I used above.  Here’s more:

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New analysis asks “Can people recognize changing climate?”

The country’s leading climatologist has a fascinating analysis on “Perceptions of Climate Change:  Can people recognize changing climate?”  Hansen had predicted as part of his famous 1988 testimony “that the perceptive person would notice that climate was changing by the early 21st century.”  He revisits that subject in this paper with his coauthor, Makiko Sato.

They also make a number of noteworthy predictions.  That the 2010s will be the warmest decade on record may be a surprise to the deniers and confusionists — like the discredited Dr. J. Scott Armstrong, a marketing professor at the Wharton School, who is testifying Thursday in front of the House Science committee (more on that later).  But it is obvious to anyone who follows the science.  Hansen and Sato also predict:

… we believe that the system is moving toward a strong El Nino starting this summer. It’s not a sure bet, but it is probable.

They don’t say so here, but that would very likely make 2012 the hottest year on record, one that is every bit as overwhelmed by extreme weather as 2010 was.

This entire analysis of how climate change is recognized by the public, especially the American public, is quite important, so I will excerpt their piece at length below:

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Our guest blogger is Bill Becker

Several times recently, we’ve heard this argument: When it comes to securing America’s energy future, we need “all of the above” – coal, oil, gas, nuclear, solar, wind, and so on.

That is a not an energy policy; it’s a cop out. It’s how elected officials dodge hard choices about our energy security. It’s how they avoid political backlash from energy interests, especially those with money and clout such as coal, oil and nuclear.

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Billion-plus people to lack water in 2050: study

More than one billion urban residents will face serious water shortages by 2050 as climate change worsens effects of urbanization, with Indian cities among the worst hit, a study said Monday.

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China and Germany take lead as global investment reaches record $243 Billion in 2010

The U.S. competitive position in the clean energy sector is deteriorating, as the country slipped to third place in terms of the amount of private investment directed to the G-20 economies, according to a new report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Until 2008, the U.S. had held the top spot, which is now firmly held by China. Globally, 2010 clean energy finance and investments grew by 30 percent to a record $243 billion.

That’s from the news release for new research released by The Pew Charitable Trusts.  The report, Who’s Winning the Clean Energy Race? 2010 Edition, uses data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Here’s more:

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Chu: Electric cars will go 300 miles on single charge by 2016

Last week, The Pew Charitable Trust enlisted former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm “as a senior advisor in their efforts to promote clean energy policies that create jobs, stimulate innovation, spur investment and enhance America’s competitiveness in the global clean energy race.”  Granholm will “will travel the country to demonstrate the economic opportunities of advancing policies that make cars cleaner, industry more efficient and renewable energy more accessible and affordable.”

CAP’s Lee Hamill has more on the story.

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The pro-pollution, anti-science crowd continues to press its attack on clean air, clean water, and a livable climate for our children.  These attacks are so far out of the mainstream that many newspapers have spoken out.  Here’s a bunch:

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